unable to say here is how we'll make it work. >> good to see you both. >> that is all of the time we have left. no football. stay tuned. fox news coverage continues straight ahead. >> you know it's bad when the comedian says the president lost the debate. and he didn't stop there. he tweets i can't believe i'm saying this but obama looks like he does need a teleprompter. ouch. and he's not the only one. twitter verdict was harsh tonight. and there is a tweet maybe they should add that little league rule. just call it a day z even ed shults tweeting i thought obama was off his game. what do you think? take a look. >> under the policies and middle income americans have been buried they're just being crushed.

i just don't know how the president could have come into office facing $23 million people out of work and rising unemployment z economic crisis at the kitchen table and spend energy and passion fighting for obama care instead of for jobs for the american people. >> we did work on this alongside working on jobs. this is part of making sure middle class families are secure in this country. >> the federal government taking over health care and whisking aside the 10th amendment is not the course for america to have a stronger economy. >> right now, you can take a deduction for moving a plan overseas. i think most americans would say that doesn't make sense and that raises revenue. >> i've been in business ta years. i have no idea what you're talking about. i maybe need to get a new accountant but the idea you get a break for shipping jobs overseas is not the case.

mr. president you're entitled to your own house and airplane but not your own facts. >> 1 months you've been running on this tax plan. now, you're saying big bold idea is never mind. the fact is that if you're lowering the rates the way you describe, governor, then... it is not possible to come up with enough deductions only affect high income individuals to avoid either raising deficit or burdening the middle class. does anyone out there think that the big problem we had is that there is too much oversight and regulation of wall street? because if you do, then... governor romney is your candidate. >> don't forget, you put $90 billion, like 50 years worth of breaks into solar and wind. to sole lynn dra and fiskar and tesla. i had a friend that said you

don't just pick binners and losers, pick the losers. and carl rove joins us. let's go to the issue of undecided. jump in there. those at least watching. >> well, we're likely to see a bump out of this. not much of a bump but a little bit of a bump. first debate is most important of the debates and this typically the winner that gets a point two points out of the debate. there is a close race like this, that matters but to step back just a moment. what matters is that there is to a lesser extent there is the vice presidential debate. soits not over tonight but there is a strong start for mitt romney. and this is an astonishingly good start and a very bad

start for the incumbent president of the united states. >> you know looking at the twitter universe which is not a science study and this is seeming to me one thing the governor did get tonight that is important is that there is a lot of enthusiasm. people on the other side of the political spectrum seem to be throwing president obama under the bus. >> that is the result of sort of dimensions of the debate. first is that in this debate, mitt romney succeeded as forward looking. got the chance to layout more details about jobs and economy and tax reforms, and this is making him look reasonable and practical z it was reassuring this is exactly the process

happening in this one 1980 keeb debate. reagan made himself reasonable and reassured american people he was up for the job. second thing is that romney was aggressive, obama was defensive. the president was always on the defense. part because he didn't seem to have a plan for what he wanted to achieve tonight but there is romney also being aggressive and saying he gets criticized for tax break for oil companies and responldz to the president saying wait a minute. i'm not in favor of that but just remember you gave five times to green energy company that's went belly up so. this is a very good about zit ziding obama but questioning him and pulling issues back to him. this is a the third item,

tone. president obama came across as irritated and looking down. never looking up. and this is romney looking at the president, just a wrong tone. romney was president yismt had humor, who knew he had a sense of humor, i've got five boys i'm used to hearing people say things that aren't true and hoping i'll believe them. you're entitled to your own place and house but not your own facts. he was pretty darn funny. and there is a tone of bipartisanship. in 2008 barack obama did a good job of saying i'm going to be the president of everybody. tonight romney in a different way said look, i'm going to work together with democrats and republicans and there is a

very effective presentation in that regard there. is wrn reason take those things together and president obama's supporters have every reason to be upset tonight. >> and tomorrow we'll have fact checking done on everything. and in terms of this president obama supporters one of my colleagues spoke with leader pelosi and she must have seen a different debate than the rest of the democrats were tweeting tonight it says pelosi says defining moment was when romney said he would not ask the wealthyest americans to pay their fair share. that was, i mean a defining moment made for leader pelosi but... it did not seem like a great night for the president. >> interest there is 55

million people watching. people goring to make their judgments independent of the kmechblts very interesting, the president off times the talking points. so one thing he said romney had secret plans on jobs, economy and regulation. and taxes. just after romney spent time giving the details on awful those being critical of very specific pro visions of don frank. and this is the president was not in denver. i thought he spent too much time shooting bass cats rather than prepping for this thing. we saw it. he offered up routine rogue talking point thing that's people were sitting there saying do you know what? this doesn't jive with what i've just seen happen with these two men on the stage. >> and rnc chair predicting

the president would make excuses because he can't defined his record. he joins us from denver, good evening mr. chairman. tell me have you spoken to governor romney since the debate? >> i. i can tell you he was smiling and happy with how things went tonight. tonight was a historical night. and this is a sense that that is shocking. the performance but there is a problem for governor and drk-excuse me, the president, mitt romney was ready, and prepared. and he was ten yaishis and respectful. the president meandering. i think he left his heart back in washington, d.c.. he was boring and wasn't prepared for the president it was unbelievable for the wrong

reasons for governor romney this was a night i think expired this constory that there is someone in governor romney not only capable of doing the things necessary to get this country back on track but there is a governor who is prepared, detailed. he came out ready to go for the american people and with almost 60 million people watching tonight i think he gave the american people what they -- what the respect they deserved. >> since you're the inside track there is for instance, do you know where paul ryan is tonight? where he watched? >> do you know what? i've got paul's schedule and i don't remember where he finished tonight. and this is -- i may talk with

him tomorrow but this is a big night and a big night because governor romney delivered a specific bold plan with vision. and the president was just not inspired tonight. i'm not sure why he would show up unprepared and not ready to go but that is what he did. this is going to be remembered i think for years still to come. this is a day an incumbent president showed up not ready. >> mike murphy tweeted tonight it's funny, tonight romney is much better than his campaign, obama, far worse this says governor romney did look a little different than on the campaign trail. am i wrong about that?

>> this is he's been doing this for a long time. this just gave an opportunity in this forum and setting to present himself to the american people and this he did it. i loved the way he started saying you're not going play this rich versus poor game 90 minutes and you're not going to tell the american people something that isn't true about my plans and he did that. and that is i think set the tone. he zrnt a place he can go. so that is why he was meandering not getting to the message because there is nowhere to go. what is going to talk about? he couldn't talk about the economy or jobs and for all of

the wining this president does there is a nice thing sthae said you've been in charge four years if you wanted to do these things and put plans into place you had the opportunity z you didn't do it. and this is a save zone of mitt romney is a better place than the safe zone of barack obama. that is what you saw tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you, greta. >> greta: and former chairman of the president's council of economic advisors joins us. good evening, austin. i notice aid twit from rick klein quoting you saying showed the president has been busy with other things wasn't thrilled on answers and looked kind of tired tonight. and are those fair quotes? >> governor romney was pretty

strong and had come out was tight and concise. looked like the president was tired. i think substantively, governor romney opened up a couple cans of worms he may regret. will depend on how this will play out. and this is where he will change what he's been claiming his plans were. and then... they got into a long discussion about health care i wonder if this is a little too in the weeds foremost of the people watching but think as we go home the question of is it say style liftic impregs if obama wasn't looking at romney and romney looking at obama will that matter more? or that mitt romney changed the tax plan now to say he

didn't have a way to actually pay for it? that may come up more. >> are you able to identify, i think if goits to three categories something can be false or he could have change his policy. let me go back to the other two. was there anything that he said tonight that you noted was incorrect? this is off the cuff but, anything? >> yes. there are one if you look at the tax plan he's been specific and those do add up to $5 trillion wh. the president said you can't come up with enough deductions to pay for $5 trillion, either have to raise taxes on middle class or have to blow up the

deficit. for mitt romney to reiterate no, my plan is that it won't increase taxes on middle class that is either a new policy that he's saying tax cuts will not be what he's been saying or not correct. and this is if this might if you want to call it that. they're getting way into the weeds when they started talking about it. where some of the analysis of the small business and what share of the people work and houchl tax woz go up, i this i they're -- very to look but i was somewhat surprised with numbers that governor romney was saying because they don't conform with the data coming up out of the irs statistic autos as a debate if they so

confused everybody it tends to be a wash. >> i that i is true. >> greta: everybody is so confused. >> i think that is true and that probably favors a challenger. and as i say, i thought mitt romney did have a strong night and looked prepared and fresh and didn't look overprogrammed. if it comes down to a wash of detail there is where you get into this, i don't know everybody was following details. and even of don frank. you know? do people know details of what is in the financial regulation? not sure. so i think in the end that might end up being a wash. >> is there one bullet point saying you wish the president had gotten across on economics? what do you want it to have been? >> that is a good question.

mitt romney leveled a series of accusations against the president and kept increasing in that this charge that the president was cutting $716 billion for medicare. it doesn't seem like the president got a chance to that he refuted that. it's been an ongoing debate. critics of the governor saying well, wait a minute, romney yin plan has that same cut in this and i think the president probably should have done more. >> thank you. >> great to see you again, greta. >> time is running out early voting underway in many states. does our next guest think either candidate managed to grab voters from the other candidate? next. >> i will eliminate all program fwhiz test if they don't pass it. is the program so critical it's worth borrowing money

from china to pay for it? if not, i'll get rid of it. obama care is on the list. i use that term with all respects. >> i like it. >> good. >> i'll get rid of that. jim i'm going to stop subsidy to pbs. i like pbs and i like you, too. but i'm not going to spend money on things to borrow money from china to pay for it.

>> the fact is if you're running the race the way you describe, governor and it's not possible to come up with enough deductions and loophole that's only fikt high income individuals to avoid either raising the deficit or burdening the middle class, it's math.

it's arithmetic. >> republicans insist the policies are failures and democrats say governor romney doesn't have a specific plan. republican senator johnson joins us from denver. you've been in the bubble of the debate. and most people sh most polls which are inaccurate show governor romney won this debate. and i'm curious what you think overall impact will be for the candidate? >> this is a really great performance by the governor. and i think it resets the campaign giving him on opportunity to take his case to the american people. and so mup of what people have heard, seen, read about mitt romney comes through a filter, tonight he has a chance to draw a contrast between his vision for the future of the country and last four years

with the president which has been a staying nant economy, chronic unemployment and massive amounts of debt. and mitt romney got a chance to put forward his plan and vision this evening and i think it's going to have a significant impact on the narratives in days and week as head its interesting the debate elevated the discussion. we didn't hear anything about the case for governor romney. we didn't hear about president obama saying you didn't build it or something like that. this was a more elevated discussion. we don't see a lot of things on ads tonight. >> right. i think that is good for the american people because it's a substantive discussion about issues and i thought that again, that governor romney came across with great command and energy. and that i'm certain next time

he'll be better prepared. and there is a discussion about what's happening in latest attack ad. it's about the issues and i thought that it was for that reason a good debate. that was very impressed by and pleased with the governor's performance tonight. i think it gave him an opportunity he hasn't had before with people who are undecided. they had to have walked away tonight impressed by what they heard and saw. >> greta: i thought one of the questions governor romney handled well was the bipartisan question. we had a discussion about the fact there is no budget. we can't get a budget here because senator harry reid doesn't want that to happen. that is where there is a lot

of tie up. as a rin governor in a very democratic state of massachusetts he got things passed. >> he did. it's a particularly effective discussion for him to develop because as you know and you and i had this discussion most americans want to see things get done of they want to see problems solved and what mitt rom fee has done is fix things. and this is to work as cross the line. he's had to do that when running lirp olympics so that is something american people want to hear. i would be willing to bet if you looked at focus groups and polls during that that part of the debate that probably scored off the charts. it's a theme he needs to

develop within the remaining days of the campaign. >> any thoughts looking ahead to the debate on foreign policy? it's not something governor romney has been having a lot of experience in. and any thought on that one? >> well, there is a target rich environment. the president has a dismal record there. tonight talking about domestic policy hard for the president to defend his position there's is a record which makes it very difficult for him to defend. looking at the cost of gasoline which is double. health care, up 30% and college tuition up 35%. incomes having gone down z there is a shift there is a same set circumstances there is tumult in places like the middle east and a president whose policies are perceived around the world as weak and ineffective. and this is an area people might perceive governor romney not as experienced in i think

he has a great opportunity to make foreign policy decisions. >> up next our famous political panel who. did they think put more points on the board? you have to hear what they very v.to say, and you will, they're next. >> my plan has five parts. one gives us energy independence. and that creates about four million jobs number two... open up more trade for latin america, crack down on china 1k3 make sure our people have the skills they need to succeed. the best schools in the world. we're far from that now, four get to us a balanced budget, five, champion small business, it's small business creating jobs in america. and over the last four years, small business people have decided america may not be the place to open a new business.

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we do have a difference under definitions of small business. under my plan 97% of small business woz not see income taxes go up. governor romney says top 3% are the job creators and they'd be burdened but under that definition there are millionaires and businesses. donald trump is a small business. i know he doesn't like to think of himself as small anything but that is how you

define small business is if you're getting business income. >> and a crucial first debate each trying to convince voters that he is the one who can turn the economy around. who got the message across tonight? joining us is our political panel in denver, byron york and sam young is here and steve hays from weekly standard. first to you, donald trump got a shout out z actually my hometown of appleton, wisconsin got one. your thoughts on any undecided voters possibly swayed? is there a way to know tonight? >> this is clear mitt romney is very, very prepared and managed to get that aross without throwing out a bunch of canned lines when you're rez, you can cutoff arguments

and say that is it. we're going to do this. and you can say next question. you don't have to grapple with someone asking tough questions and tonight he did. as far as undecided voters are concerned there is talk about people, voter who's haven't paid a huge amount of attention up until now and they don't know about him. they saw someone very, very prepared and presidential looking. >> steve? >> yeah. i agree with byron this, is a about as strong of a performance as the governor could have expected to have. and this is every time there is an opening he seemed to take it. and i was watching this with a room full of conservatives and this is is we'd say he can say this and this. every time he said those things that we're talking about. there is one on taxes where he

was talking about taxes and tax hikes and mitt romney said in january, 2010 you said raising tachs in a down turn would hurt the economy. you ed that when economic growth was strong, now, it's weaker you're proposing raising taxes and this is part of a strong night. >> and i'm eating a little crow tonight. we were in vermont and the governor was preparing this last week, i woke up saying why aren't we campaigning? tonight we found out ychl the governor was preparing and on his game tonight. there is some substantive issues the president going to try to throw back at him. and appearing to double down on wanting to voucherize medicare. i recognize the president's

performance. in college i felt like i didn't need to study for an everybody lish exam because i already new english. >> greta: seemed like the president early on quit z i have never seen this. like this went out of him, the oxygen. i was really surprised and he's particularly dynamic on his feet. he looked like he quit. >> he can be dynamic. we've seen him give strong speeches. a agree waits interesting that the president seemed to almost take issue with the fact that he was being challenged so directly by governor romney and these are challenges he's not used to hearing. he's not hearing from zpaf doesn't hear them from the white house press corps. governor romney taking every shot and answering it, and then, turning quickly and i think president obama didn't expect that level of challenge. >> greta: byron, what was it like in the spin room sf

president's people representing him? >> this is actually fascinated. seconds after it ended the room was flooded with romney advisors just dashed in and eager to talk about the performance. so several minutes passed and are there democrats around here? there don't seem to be any. after a wall top official dz come in to talk but they were having a little bit of daifl time defending the president one more thing i thought was fascinating i asked both the obama campaign made a huge deal of mitt romney's 47 remark. the president did not mention it. and i asked and they said it just didn't come up in the conversation. i find it hard to believe it just didn't come up. and. >> on the flip side he didn't hear a line.

and vice presidential debate we might hear issues about middle class. >> i don't doubt that. and we've saw tonight it's probably a wake up call for the president. i do think we're going come here with a lot more zingers they've been putting in the upcoming debates, we'll see a feistier president obama going forward. >> and i think this is a great job. now this is i agree with you. there is you ask i seem to be in the minority. people were critical of him for not making more control of the debate. i think they're here to have a substantive exchange allowing them to show contrast ask do it in a polite way that. is what happened tonight. and i think if he would have interjected we would have lost

a lot that have dynamic. >> yes. yes. and owe go ahead sam. >> governor romney jumped off the starting block and didn't slow down. the president didn't seem to want to. >> i think a good moderator is almost invisible. if there is a problem, then jumps in. so i thought that that he did a great job. stand by, panel, we'll be back with you in a few minute buzz up next a skyrocketing national debt. how did the president do defending his record? we're going to get the take on the debates next. >> i like the fact that in my state we have republicans and kems -- democrats come together and work together. what you did is push through a plan without a republican vote. as a matter of fact when massachusetts did something extraordinary elected a republican senator to stop

obama care you pushed it through anyway. so on a partisan basis instead of bringing america together you pushed through something that you and nancy pelosi and harry reid thought was a best answer and drove it through. ♪

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♪ vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. showdown? denver, first let's go to our new york newsroom. ainsley earhardt is standing by. >> nato ambassadors holding an emergency meeting to discuss a deadly cross boarder incident between turkey and syria. and turkey military responded by shelling several syrian targets. tensions between the two nations have been flaring since turkey began providing refuge for thoses of seeins fleeing civil war. a rare and deadly meningitis

outbreak leesdz to steroid inspections -- injections is spreading. there are 26 reported cases in five states, 18 of them intense-in tennessee. and i'm ainsley earhardt, back to greta. >> as president i will sit down the day after i get elected silt down with democratic leaders as well as republican leader autos governor romney is going to have a busy first day because he's gok also repeal obama care which is not going to be very popular. >> did it help the governor get a foot in the white house door? and your thoughts about the debate? >> this is the night great for the president he delivered on laying out choice for american people and laying out for them

this plans for the economy and plans to protect medicare from being voucherized i think we came away with look, american people don't want an attacker in chief they want a commander in chief. the president was calm and steady. they're going to have a clear understanding what he'll do in four years. >> you've seen people have said i hate this win, lose bit but people have been disappointed tonight but after tonight and tomorrow, when the sun prizes -- rises is there anything that governor romney said tonight that you think tomorrow we're going find out the fact was wrong? that he was wrong? >> i think the biggest example is him backing away from the $5 trillion tax plan. we know unless there is a magic secret calculator we know he was misleading the

american people on that point. he doubled down on a lot of the poll sthaiz have been doubled his campaign for months if you're a senior in florida or iowa what you know is that he wants to voucherize medicare. it's a big problem for him. >> is the debate in the halls different than on tv? i watched it on tv. people thought that the president sort of lost steam tonight. that he didn't have his usual enthusiasm. that he wasn't on his game. is that an unfair observation? >> look, i think the president's goals going into tonight tonight was to speak to the american people like adults. layout specifics of the policies. speak clear about the choice in this election. that is what he did. his audience wasn't necessarily people in the hall it wasn't the media. waits people on their couches just tuning in.and what they can taky from this is the president going to fight for them?

that is what our goal was going in. >> what do you make of the fact the governor didn't throw in the i didn't build it comment? and president obama didn't throw in 47% comment? >> well, the i didn't build it comment didn't work. because it's just not believable to take a clip from a longer speech and try to rip it out and make it something it wasn't. and i'll bet you 99% of the country heard the 47% video and knows what that is about. the president talked about it. we're up on the air with ads and the problem about that for mitt romney is that it just confirm what's people think about it him, he's disconnected and doesn't understand what they're going through. the goal wasn't to do a check list but to deliver a clear choice. that is what he did. >> coming up is the vippel debate. i assume that vice president

biden's remarks about the middle class being buried in the last four years. >> that is just absurd, silly. the fact is that there is no one a bigger advocate for fighting for middle class for the president's policies then the vice president. he's had that only up front. he's been a key player and when it comes to access to affordable health care and middle class tax cuts investing in clean energy that will put people back to work the vice president has been a maiblg major advocate. taking a piece from a sound byte trying to make that emblem matic of someone with a decades long career is just ridiculous i don't think goitsing to fly with the american people. >> is there any question you want to ask tonight that was not asked? >> well, there is a lot more that we can learn about his tax plan z what he would do there.

and what is clear is that it just doesn't add up. there is no way to make it add up. there is not 90 minute that's will allow him to explain so this simply doesn't. he didn't deliver on that. the problem -- probably could have been more of a discussion but there are two more debates to go. >> you do. and there is more and thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> straight head not over. there are still two more presidential debates to go. our pabl panel is back. next.

>> i was in dayton ohio a woman said i've been out of work since maichl can you help me? there was a rally in yesterday

and a woman came up to ann and said ann my husband had four jobs in three years. part time jobs. he lost his most recent job. we've now just lost our home. can you help us? the answer is yes. we can help. but it's going to take a different path. not the one we've bon on. not the one the president describes as a top down cut taxes for the rich that is not what i'm going to do. >> there is more analysis. it's interesting. i thought the governor was the first one to get to sort of the person stories tonight that. is been at least the strength of the president is the personal stories. >> he did. and this is interesting thing about this is that we've been saying governor romney put in a strong performance. you talk to obama aides about this, they believe the president did score points on medicare.

and that i know both david plum and jim messina told me what mitt romney said about medicare is not going to play well with the undecided voter in florida. or ohio in z.this is a about getting 270 vets so i will look for them to push hard to suggest mitt romney is hiding what his plan or was, has a plan for medicare pushing it into those swing states. they don't believe they lost tonight in those states. >> and we're talking about medicare issue. you have a different thought. >> i thought this is one of the best moments for governor romney. if we had had this conversation six months ago i would have said to you on the night of the first presidential debate of the general election the republican would plead with the moderator to go back to entitlement reform there. is a moment he wanted to move it on and mitt romney stopped

twice and said can bego back to medicare? that is suggesting mitt romney came into the debate prepared to be aggressive and bold laid out a plan, corrected the president when president obama made it sound like paul ryan came up with premium support planning. that idea originated from democrats. i thought he's on offense on that issue. i think that is why he did well. >> sam, what is next in this debate? you've been with this campaign. >> you're going hear more of what you heard. big question is how do they react going forward? there is a rocky night tonight. by they let the vice president off the chain? we know that that is with lee ward as well as a lot of risk. and i don't think they want to see a repeat of that.

it's in kentucky. i know they'll get a nice welcome. >> and sam did a shout out of kentucky. and your thoughts governoring into the. >> it's an opportunity for the romney campaign to be aggressive and bold. you've heard this is what they want from the romney campaign. we've had two weeks of this. and there is a choice election. they laid out their vision for the few turk a lot of talk about the future, less talk about the president's record. i think that is what conservatives wanted to see all along. they'll see it from paul ryan. >> and this is tonight incredibly exciting. panel, thank you. >> coming up... >> thank you last call, one more quick round before we turn down the lights. the debate kicking off on a personal note. another look at the moment with both candidates smiling

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>> 20 years ago, i became the luckiest man on earth because michelle obama agreed to marry me. i want to wish, sweeter, happy anniversary. a year from now, we will not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people. >> congratulations, mr. president, i am sure this is the most romantic place you could imagine -- here with me. congratulations. >> that's your last call. we are closing down shop. thank you for staying up so very late with us. we will see you tomorrow at our regular ti,